on the way to happiness
by Vanus Empty
Summary: Things weren't okay between them. They weren't even close, but they could be. That made all the difference. PostWar AU. Ish.


**Title:** on the way to happiness  
**Series:** "Bleach"  
**Disclaimer:** Tite Kubo owns, yessir.**  
Warnings:** Nothing really, but...**  
Character(s)/Pairing(s):** Gin, Rangiku – others.  
**Rating:** PG/K+  
**Other:** -blushflail- My first Bleach fic. Yes, yes, I know. The likelihood of this happening? Non-existent, but a girl can dream of a happy ending, you know? S'what fic is for!

-

She'd punched him in the nose so hard she broke it, splattering blood across his clothing and onto the ground. She's screamed at him as she did it, a wordless roar of rage and left, shunpoing so fast away that he didn't even catch an afterimage of her. Hitsugaya glared hatefully at him and followed her.

He hadn't seen her since and that was three months ago.

Not that Gin actually expected her to welcome him back with open arms. Yamamoto's revelation of Gin's "double agent" status hadn't gone over well. Half of Seireitei was still in shock, the other half still distrusting. He'd expected that.

He even expected Rangiku to be angry, but he hadn't expected a physical retaliation. He figured, now, he probably should have. Gin had taken the trust the two had developed for over a century and had thrown it into her face.

Heaven hath no rage, like love to hatred turned. Nor Hell a fury like that of a woman scorned. William Congreve probably was thinking of a woman like Rangiku when he spoke those words.

Gin wanted to make amends, he really did, but no one would tell him where she was. Ise had informed him that she had no idea where Rangiku was, then frostily thanked him for depriving her of her best friend. He'd fled before Kyouraku added his own thoughts.

He didn't even bother with Hitsugaya, even though he was the most likely candidate to know where she was, being her captain and her friend and all that. The one time he'd approached the younger captain's barracks, his breath had ghosted in front of his face before he even stepped into the building. He ended up shaking frost from his clothes for minutes when he left.

So, really, it wasn't just his fault. In the end, he was so desperate to find her that he traveled to the real world and asked that freaky Kurosaki kid. The teenager had looked flatly at him for ten minutes (Gin had glanced at the clock on the boy's desk!) before Ichigo was satisfied with whatever he found on Gin's face and told him.

He was comfortable with admitting that it was the single most awkward ten minutes of Gin's life, but he'd spend hours under that kid's creepy glare for Rangiku's location.

As it turned out, she'd been staying at Inoue's apartment.

Gin knocked on Inoue's door and smiled brightly when the girl opened it. "Hi, is Rangiku here?" He asked, mostly to be polite. He could sense Rangiku's reiatsu from half a block away.

The girl squeaked and he was half proud that he still intimidated people, but she boldly lied and said, "No, I'm sorry. Do you want me to tell her you stopped by if I see her?"

However, Rangiku herself stepped up behind Inoue, resting her chin on the girl's shoulder. She glared halfheartedly at Gin. "What do you want, Gin?"

"To beg your forgiveness," Gin answered honestly. He was whipped and had been since he first spotted the tiny girl lying flat in the dust decades ago. He could admit this, if only to himself.

Rangiku's nose wrinkled and Gin squashed the urge to tell her it was adorable. "And for what should I forgive you for?"

"Uh, want a list?"

She exhaled through her nose. Inoue's eyes darted between the two, clearly wishing she was somewhere else, but Gin had a feeling Rangiku needed emotional support. Inoue probably recognized this, too.

"Right." Gin nodded his head and held up a closed fist. He ticked off the reasons with his fingers. "I lied to you. I betrayed your trust. I hurt you more than anyone ever could. I didn't tell you I was a spy for Yamamoto, even though your reaction to my 'betrayal' was imperative." He dropped his hands to the side. "For being an idiot?"

Rangiku leveled a half-lidded stare at him. For a full thirty seconds, he kept his eyes open and met her stare. Sea-green met sky-blue for the first time in months.

Eventually, Rangiku sighed and stepped away from Inoue. For one heartbeat-skipping moment, Gin thought the woman was going to turn around and walk back into the apartment, but she simply stepped around Inoue and walked towards him. She slid her arms around his waist without hesitation and tucked herself into the crook of his shoulder, nose buried into the soft fabric of his clothing.

Something inside of Gin slotted back into place and a tension he had known was there, just hadn't known the magnitude, melted away, leaving him feeling ridiculously weak. His arms wrapped around her and together, they released a full-bodied sigh. He felt her smile against the skin of his neck. Dimly, he saw Inoue beam happily and return to the apartment, shutting the door behind her.

"You're an asshole," she told him and Gin grinned a little into her hair.

"Yeah," he mused thoughtfully.

"You're going to be making this up for me for _years_," Rangiku added.

Gin nodded. "Centuries," he corrected.

She thumped her fist against his other shoulder. "I hate you."

"I know."

"I love you, too, though," she grumbled and tightened her hold on him.

He brushed his lips against her temple and just breathed. "I know." I love you, too.

Things weren't okay between them. They weren't even close, but they could be. That made all the difference.

-

I wrote het! Actually, I wrote romance period, which in and of itself is pretty weird. Hope you enjoyed. Feed the muse!


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